(June 24, 1998-May 2003)
NORTH End: Stop sign, IA 163, Mahaska County
Facing northwest on 432 (6/28/03)
Photo by Jason Hancock
About half of 432's route parallels the new IA 163. Overall, it's barely more a north-south than east-west route.
Facing southwest, but heading north, on 432 (see below) (6/28/03)
Photo by Jason Hancock
This intersection will be gone by the end of the 2020s. A US 63 bypass of Oskaloosa will run northeast from about the Leighton corner and this intersection will be closed in that process.
Aerial: USDA/NRCS; rural sign: Jason Hancock (6/28/03)
The intersection marked "Traffic circle here" indicates the intersection with 432 and Pella Avenue, which continues diagonally out of the picture to the right. Traffic circles are a rarity in Iowa [or at least they WERE when I wrote this in 2004 -ed.], although the DOT has decided to go with "roundabout" as the nomenclature instead. This particular roundabout opened in December 2003. Personally, even with my limited experience of them in the Northeast, I rank roundabouts up with one-way streets and four-way stops as the most heinous traffic control devices ever unleashed on drivers.
Aerial photos online confirmed my earlier suspicion: Until 1957, IA 163 used Pella Avenue, which then becomes L Street, down to A Avenue. That is where it met IA 92, which also until 1957 had a different routing on the west side of Oskaloosa, turning south one block on L Street then west on High Avenue and Suffolk Road. Suffolk Road was cut in two when the bypass was built in the 1990s.
Maybe it's a REALLY old sign
This is one of three intersections on IA 432 (the middle is a traffic circle as mentioned on the graphic farther up). It bears the distinction of being wrong on the surface but also accidentally accurate. The road technically was Highway 63 at one time, specifically late 1926 to the winter of 1934-35. But for six decades it was Highway 163, and five more years it was Highway 432. The difference is that it's officially Highway 432 inside Oskaloosa city limits while it's Old Highway 163 (what this sign should have said) in Mahaska County. (photo 7/18/20)
SOUTH End: Stop sign/T intersection, IA 92, Oskaloosa, Mahaska County
By October 2004, possibly concurrent with a new Wal-Mart Supercenter and re-asphalting of IA 92 in this area, all gantries and LGSs at this intersection have disappeared. You would never know this was the end of a state highway.
Facing south on 432 (June 2000)
Photo by Jason Hancock
No longer the end of a marked highway (indeed, any highway), but the signs still stood for years. Between 1957, when this intersection was built, and 1969, US/IA 163 went east (left) from this intersection, to end at US 63, being the "child" of that route.
Facing south on 432 (7/18/20)
Facing east on 92 (6/28/03)
Photo by Jason Hancock
Pella is in the blacked-out (grayed-out?) space on this LGS.
Facing east on 92 (June 2000)
Photo by Jason Hancock
Jason Hancock writes: "This overhead gantry on the west edge of Oskaloosa features a blank green sign. It used to mark the lane for turning onto westbound IA 163 until the freeway bypass was built in 1997. The text on the signs approaching old IA 163 were taken down, but the signs themselves were still up when this photo was taken in June 2000. (If you look closely at the blank sign, you can make out a faint circular outline, the word "WEST", and a downward-pointing arrow.)"
Facing southeast, looking toward IA 92 (7/18/20)
Facing west on 92 (6/28/03)
Photo by Jason Hancock
Closeup of above picture (6/28/03)
Photo by Jason Hancock
Notice the difference in arrow size under the "92 west" and "163 west" signs. Unlike eastbound 92, the 163 shield remains here, with its accompanying arrow turned 90 degrees to face down. The bridges of the 163 bypass are visible just over the top of the hill.
According to news articles and public records, the portion of IA 432 in the Oskaloosa limits was accepted by the city December 2, 2002, and the portion in Mahaska County was accepted December 23, the same day as 102 and 371. It was taken off the state rolls in May.
Last seen: 2003
Page created 1/19/04; last updated 9/9/20